Hanging Pot Racks (Probably The Best Deal I'll Get All Year...)

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Tiny kitchens are the worst. After a hilarious episode of House Hunters in Minneapolis, I've now re-coined the term "One Butt Kitchen." You know what I'm talking about... those kitchens that are obviously meant for only one butt at a time. Well, that's what we're got to work with. 

On top of being a "One Butt Kitchen," cabinet space was slim pickin's. We installed a spice rack, shelving, and a hanging rack for coffee mugs under a cabinet... but were still stumped as to how to free up space and make the small space we did have more functional. 

One of the biggest "pain points," so to speak, was the pot-and-pan storage. The under-the-counter cabinet situation involved one large but totally not functional space. This lead to piles of pots and pans and the one you wanted was always squeezed between all the others. Everything was a lot of work... and noise...

...until I found an amazing deal. I ordered this Innova Classicor Wrought Iron Oval Pot Rack (yes, that's its full name. Sort of like Prince Edward VanHalen Lichtenstein the Third) for under 40 bucks.

We installed it by putting in four hook screws, then hanging the fixture from a large chain.

Before & After:

And of course, I had to grab a shot from underneath. I feel like I should be cooing like a little baby, staring up at my pretty little big mobile.

The light we had initially hung over the stove is now somewhat displaced. It's currently hanging along with a rarely used pot... just in case we decide we still want it and want to hang it more "chic"-ly from the rack. Any suggestions? :)

 

Making Over The Tiniest Kitchen In The World

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Perhaps you recall when we gave Justin's Wicker Park apartment an overhaul... At the time, we did nothing to the kitchen. We were stumped, to say the least. There was no storage. Hardly any shelving. No place for spices or pots and pans. 

Before:

The cabinets you DO see are filled with cups and plates... and the cabinets underneath the sink have no shelving or layering. Just one big space under there. So that means your food would be next to your under-the-sink garbage bin and cleaning supplies. Yuck? I think so!

Progress:

To deal with the shelving and storage problem, we decided to add some storage of our own. We added a bright red spice rack, which helped alleviate some of the kitchen stress... and, for a bit of fun, we smacked up a piece of art that mimics the bright red.  

  

We also added a few shelves above the sink, which we picked up at an antique store in Holland, Michigan. The industrial-looking silver shelves can hold a few odds and ends, like coffee grounds, paper towels, and an awesome non-aerosol olive oil spritzer.

Adding a super cheap (thanks, online shopping!) under-the-counter mug rack also freed up some space in the cabinets (while also helping play off of that mustard yellow color). I grabbed it online for 11 bucks and it arrived within two days. Semi-instant gratification? Thanks, internet (I mean Al Gore).

So, using a thrifted spice rack, antique silver shelves, and a cheapo under-cabinet organizer, we had freed up lots of space and organized as much as we thought we could. Yet, there was still a big problem. The new most obnoxious thing (because as soon as you eliminate one nuisance, another one pops up to take its place) was the clambering noise of pots and pans.

Every single time I wanted to cook, I had to wrestle (yes, wrestle) the appropriate pot or pan from an under-the-sink cabinet. Not only did I have to "get low" (sure, I'm only 23, but getting down on your hands and knees to cook is just obnoxious), but, inevitably, that the pan I wanted would always be stuck in between all of the others. Right in the middle. The most inaccessible place. It's Murphy's law... or perhaps his first cousin. Anyway, piles were spilled. Pots knocked other things over. Nothing was organized. And my brain was screaming.

And then I had a dream. Wouldn't it be splendid if, instead of being stacked 10 pots high, the pots and pans were hanging? It came just like a dream to me. To have pots and pans hanging from above, easily plucked like grabbing an apple from a tree?! It must be the kitchen version of the Garden of Eden! Can it exist?

Oh, that's right. Such a thing does exist! It's called a pot rack! For $39.42!

Come back tomorrow to see how it looks :)